INSTANT MBA: You Don't Have To Go To College To Be Successful

Today’s advice comes from our interview with Craig Younkins, CTO of AutoRef:“I apply the things I learned in college every single day. Don’t get me wrong … but at some point the marginal benefit wears down. I’m much happier now than I was when I was in school, and to me, that’s what’s most important. I’m glad I made the leap [to leave college] and the future is definitely foggy, and we’ll see if I make it, but for the most part I am a lot happier now.”

Younkins says he doesn’t regret taking an indefinite leave of absence to run a startup. He believes you don’t need a degree to become a successful entrepreneur. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart and take that leap of faith. Earning a degree may be something everyone expects you to do, but that doesn’t mean you have to go to college to land the job of your dreams and be successful. Younkins says being happy is what matters most and if leaving college to join a startup makes you happy, go for it.

“I am an engineer so I look at it as risks versus rewards … The reward is that you’ll be doing something that you really want to do, which I consider very important. I am in a lot of control of the product, which is fantastic. I basically just love what I do. Think about it long and hard, but at the end of the day, you would probably want to take that risk.”

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